And I'm getting tired of looking at Karl's name!

What? You guys got nut'n to say?!

OK, I'll start; Pete, get over here today, great wind for upwind poniting practice!

And who's going to GPYC on March 5??

It's a little late in the day since it's a two hour drive to your place.

Yeah...well...the wind -finally- just came in, SE about 10, I'm going. See ya!

You could have come to Merritt Island and hung out with Hagar last weekend.

Except I was in Sydney last weekend...

Not everyone has -every- weekend off.

It was great out in my backyard yesterday and today, where were you?

I'm off March 5, you coming to GYC?

Last weekend was yesterday and the day before that, right?

Yeah, I got home late Saturday night after spending about 24 hours flying from SYD to LAX, sat two hours, then dead-heading from LAX to ATL, sat an hour, then ATL to MCO, and then driving 2 hours home...to say I was "Wiped Out" come Sunday morning would be an understatement, which is why I sailed here in my back yard on the Prindle yesterday afternoon, too tired to even uncover the Blade.

How was Hagar? Good wind?

No pix no proof.

Show me how to imbed a picture, I'll put one up we took on the way out of SYD, and one of me, in uniform!

I tried to post it but it said the file was too large, to many pixley thingy-doeys or something...I just emailed them to you.


Soo...who's going to Gulfport on March 5? Anyone?

I don't know if I want to fly with you! Isn't a 777 a big computer? [save your pic on your computer somewhere>go into file manager > browse > open> add file> stop adding files> submit] if the file size is too big, use the "sniping tool" and post that instead of the pic file.

I'm in for GYC IF you can assure me of 5 spin boats, I don't care what size.

You couldn't have asked for a better weekend to go sailing. We spent Sunday chasing and catching balloons, an exercise that never seems to get old, what a riot. Not to mention the trophy making party hosted by the McDonalds, always a hit.

The 777 is pretty automated but Thank GOD it's a Boeing not an Airbus! I can turn off all that fancy crap and fly it, like it's an airplane. That and I've got 2 Co-pilots and a spare Captain to -help- (baby sit) me! You can post the pictures if you can figure out how. I've got to take the dogs out for a walk...

My old man was hired by northwest in 1963. The last plane he checked out in was the the 747-200, and he retired in 1992. He was old school. Used to piss of right seat folk because he would fly the plane to altitude, not just flip on the auto pilot and set a climb rate and altitude.

Yeah, it's getting pretty bad now a days, they really don't want us to hand fly the airplanes, and in some Asian countries they outright forbid it! (Air India, Korea, China) "Always use the automation, it's safer." and forget how to fly?
No thanks.

You know they parked all the 727's years ago to save on fuel, replaced them with the 737-800's and MD-88's. Now NW/DAL is parking the DC-9's, the last "non-FMS" airframes. From here on out it's pushing buttons, auto-throttles and auto-lands. That's why I still go out and fly the Scout when ever I get a chance.

http://amerchampionaircraft.com/


But the Airbus takes the pilot out of the loop entirely, not allowing the pilot to "Exceed" any of their pre-set parameters. (Bank angle, pitch, roll, etc.) At least with Boeing I can do what I want, within reason of course, or as we say,

"You can do anything you want...once."

guess you gotta look at pilot error vs computer error. Wouldn't that twin prop plane that crashed near baltimore (or buffalo, can't remember) a couple years ago not have crashed if they used the autopilot? Didn't an airbus crash in NYC shortly after 9/11 because the pilot applied too much rudder and ripped the vert stab off the plane?
Not saying a computer is better than you tim

The Airbus 330 has a long history of losing the verticle stab, of course it's much easier to blame it on the dead guys, no lawsuits that way, but look at all the tails that have come off the A330's (Air France coming out of South America)...it's not the pilots, it's the design.

The Colgan crash near Buffalo I believe you are refering to was indeed Pilot Error, but that airplane (a Q400) also has a bad history of accumulating ice on the tail in the -wrong- conditions, which is exactly what they were in, that night. The auto pilot had been on but it kicked off when it could no longer sustain adequate control over the horizontal stab, which had iced up. The pilot took the wrong actions (which is still being debated by some experts) ending in a stall/spin into the house.

Look no further than the FAA to see who is responsible for certifying these 2 POS airplane designs. That's why a lot of us have stickers on our flight kits that say,

"If it ain't Boeing, I'm not going."

And now Boeing has managed to F'up the 787 by outsourcing the builds to the 3rd world. Brilliant!


We all know the Pilot's are always at fault, they should have called in sick that day!

There is no computer that is better than any human pilot. Computers are not flexible enough to adapt to sudden changes in...everything. You would not have a computer sail your boat on a gusty day, would you?

A quick search on You Tube and you'll find out just how good Airbus Automation is, this event took place at the Paris Airshow, the aircraft, an Airbus A320, is being 'operated' (not Flown) by the lead test pilot. Remember, a computer is only as good as the -HUMAN- who programed it. You cannot take "Human Error" out of automation, because it's designed, built and operated by...humans!

"Hal??"

"Yes Dave?"

"Hal, I need you to turn it off now."

"No Dave..."

What's the difference between an A320 and a Chanisaw?

About 500 trees a second...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5NXpar4Ouw

I hear ya, just messing with ya. Kind of like getting named in a malpractice claim- just unlucky really.

tim, does watching stuff like this make you nauseated?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X_7Xt2ga-s&feature=related

No, that's pretty normal max crosswind stuff. Some of those were Boeing Certification flights, where they have to "Demonstrate" to the FAA what the Maximum Crosswind Landing wind speed is, so they were doing that on purpose, to show how much crosswind it could handle.

The last one in that clip was real-world, pax on board, and that looked pretty Ugly!

The "Trick" to a good max-crosswind landing is knowing when (and how much) to kick the rudder to get the airframe aligned with the runway, just before you plant the landing gear on the runway. If you watch closely, you will see (both 747 landings were good) they approach the runway with a big crab angle into the wind, but obviously you don't want to touch the landing gear down going sideways (like that last guy did!) so at about 10 feet up, while sinking, you kick the rudder and lower the upwind wing, to straighten out the nose and gear, to align with the runway, and you plant it, firmly, all at the same time.

Of course if it's that windy (I'm guessing most of those were in the 30knot cross wind range, or more), it's usually squirly winds too, lost of gusts and lulls, that's why it's hard to know exactly when to kick it straight. If you get a gust just as you thought you were going to touch down, or worse, a lull (drop) just before you kick it straight, well, it can get ugly. That's what happened to most of those guys who just about dragged wingtips in that clip.

Several of them "Did The Right Thing" and went around, come back and try it agian, or go somewhere else. You don't want to try to salvage a bad crosswind landing or you risk ending up in the grass on the side of the runway, like that one guy did!


By the way, our (777) max Autoland (on autopilot) crosswind limit is 25 knots, the max 777 Human crosswind landing is 39knots. So I guess the Humans are better and can handle more crosswind than the automation.


Oh, the 3 worst landings in that video were all Airbus A320's...what does that tell you?

Here's what it tells me. Those guys have not been hand flying enough, they have become crippled by always relying on the automation to do it for them.